Towards Standardizing Perceptual Voice Quality Measures

迈向标准化感知语音质量测量

• 批准号: 7035509
• 负责人: JODY E KREIMAN
• 金额: $ 50.48万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 1992
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1992-12-01 至 2010-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7035509
• 关键词: clinical research; computer system design /evaluation; human subject; mathematical model; model design /development; noise; sound perception; speech disorders; speech recognition; speech synthesizers; voice

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Judgments of voice quality contribute greatly to patients' opinions of their voice, and to a clinician's decision to initiate and continue treatment. Quality judgments are also used as a standard against which instrumental measures of voice are validated. Nevertheless, these "subjective" measures of voice quality are not highly regarded as either clinical or research tools, because of problems with reliability and untested validity. We hypothesize that problems in voice quality measurement do not originate within the listener, but rather derive from the methods used to measure what listeners hear. The proposed research departs from traditional rating scale methods by applying a speech synthesizer for pathological voice quality to study basic issues concerning reliability and validity of voice quality measures, and to determine the perceptual importance of the acoustic elements that underlie voice quality perception. In this approach, listeners adjust synthesizer parameters to achieve a perceptual match to the original voice. This method of adjustment technique explicitly links the acoustic signal to voice quality. We hypothesize that this linkage across the speech chain increases the validity, reliability, and utility of the resulting perceptual responses, by providing listeners with an objective tool (a synthesizer) for quantifying what they hear. The proposed research focuses on four specific aims. First, we will expand, refine, and automate our synthesizer, to increase power, flexibility, and ease of use. Secondly, we will apply the synthesizer to examine the perceptual importance of several key aspects of pathologic voices, including the shape of the source spectrum, period doubling, and the perceptual interactions of harmonic and inharmonic (noise) energy in the voice source. In each case, we will determine which acoustic features are perceptually important and whether these features interact with others, and we will estimate just-noticeable-differences for the parameter as an index of the amount of acoustic change that is clinically meaningful on that dimension. Thirdly, we will evaluate clinicians' ability to apply the synthesizer as a tool for measuring voice quality in the clinic. We will also revisit the use of synthetic anchors in rating protocols as an alternative to the method of adjustment task. Finally, we will evaluate the external validity of the synthesis technique by comparing perceptual measures derived from sustained vowels to those derived from continuous speech. By increasing the power and ease of the synthesizer's use, examining listener sensitivity to important acoustic variables, and studying the generalizability of this approach, the proposed research will bring our goal of a standardized voice quality evaluation protocol within reach.

描述（由申请人提供）：语音质量的判断在很大程度上有助于患者对其声音的看法，以及临床医生是否开始和继续治疗的决定。质量判断也被用作验证声音的工具测量的标准。然而，由于可靠性和未经测试的有效性问题，这些语音质量的“主观”测量方法并没有被高度视为临床或研究工具。我们假设，语音质量测量中的问题并非源自听者自身，而是源自用于测量听者所听到内容的方法。本研究从传统的评分表方法出发，利用语音合成器对病理语音质量进行评价，研究语音质量测度的信度和效度等基本问题，确定构成语音质量感知的声学要素的感知重要性。在这种方法中，听众调整合成器参数以实现与原始声音的感知匹配。这种调整技术方法明确地将声信号与语音质量联系起来。我们假设，通过为听者提供一个客观的工具（合成器）来量化他们所听到的内容，这种跨言语链的联系增加了所产生的感知反应的有效性、可靠性和实用性。拟议的研究侧重于四个具体目标。首先，我们将扩展、改进和自动化我们的合成器，以增加功率、灵活性和易用性。其次，我们将应用合成器来检查病理声音的几个关键方面的感知重要性，包括源频谱的形状，周期加倍，以及声源中谐波和非谐波（噪声）能量的感知相互作用。在每种情况下，我们将确定哪些声学特征在感知上是重要的，以及这些特征是否与其他特征相互作用，并且我们将估计参数的刚刚明显的差异，作为在该维度上具有临床意义的声学变化量的指标。第三，我们将评估临床医生在临床中使用合成器作为测量语音质量工具的能力。我们还将重新审视在评级协议中使用合成锚作为调整任务方法的替代方法。最后，我们将通过比较来自持续元音和来自连续语音的感知测量来评估合成技术的外部有效性。通过增加合成器的使用能力和易用性，检查听众对重要声学变量的敏感性，以及研究这种方法的普遍性，所提出的研究将使我们实现标准化语音质量评估协议的目标。